From: WaitingForNextYear.com –
If you frequent the site, you know that many of us come to the defense of our teams when we feel that they’re being wrongly portrayed or attacked with bias and malicious intent. We see it all of the time during football season as it seems as if the entire nation hate the Ohio State Buckeyes. For one reason or another (usually based on BCS nonsense), the Scarlet and Gray are at the forefront of the blog-wielded crowbar.

But after reading a recent report by the Columbus Dispatch, it’s pretty tough to disagree with anyone who finds some of the programs tactics a bit on the shady side.

Since 2000, Ohio State has reported to the NCAA more than 375 violations — the most of any of the 69 Football Bowl Subdivision schools that provided documents to The Dispatch through public-records requests. Most infractions were minor — a coach called a recruit too many times, for example. Others, however, left athletes benched, fined or at least embarrassed.

The public likely will never know the specifics, because records of all the violations were heavily edited by Ohio State in the name of student privacy. Ohio State says the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act ties its hands. If OSU releases what it thinks is private information, the U.S. Department of Education could withhold federal funding.

FERPA, as the privacy act is named throughout, claims that releasing student names is an invasion of privacy. Thus, when a NCAA investigator comes to campus to look into a possible “special treatment” (as was the case in question), they’re given reports that have the player’s identity, dates, and time of visit all edited out.

Thus, when you hear Jim Tressel say that a player has “violated team policy,” this can range from anywhere between being late to practice and getting arrested for flipping cars and thrashing neighborhood garage doors. A similar tactic is claiming that a player is injured – or is suffering from an academic issue – when in fact he is not.

The Dispatch also reports that “About 4,000 violations a year are reported to the NCAA, many of them unknown to the public because of FERPA. But one thing is certain: Ohio State has more than most. Florida, for example, reported 112 violations since 2000, and Oklahoma reported 224.”

As expected, many are starting to come down on the institution for the way that it is handling these issues. The university spends an amount on athletes that is tenfold that of a non-athlete. As it is these athletes that then turn around and bring a large amount of revenue, thus ensuring that these cash cows continue to provide may be a bit of a conflict of interest.

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